Final Thoughts

Something we need to address right out of the gate, and that is that this combination of parts is not for the faint of heart, or those who tend to wander through life with extremely thin wallets. In fact, to build what we have seen here will easily take you into the $1500 to 2000 range in cost all said and done. On the flip side of that though, man were they able to pack in the power and in collaboration with EKWB, offer the cooling needed to handle such a powerhouse in this small of a space, and leave you as the envy of all who know you.

There is a lot to like about what INWIN and EK have put together with this culmination of brain power between them, and let's be honest, outside of adding the HDD style mounting plate, this is a standard EK offering, so there are no surprises to expect there, but that does not mean concessions do not need to be made, even if slight.

Of course this kit was already installed and the system was ready to go for the most part, we just added in a GPU that color matched the theme, and did the same with the coolant we put inside of the empty loop. That being said, the radiator and the way it has to hang on an angle to be mounted to the motherboard tray, we feel for a "drop-in" kit, and considering the investment, this is hard to overlook, and would drive someone with mild OCD completely crazy.

The other thing that can get complicated is the bleeding process, but having the pump and block removable with just a pair of screws does allow you to rotate the chassis, and since there are some 90 degree swivel fittings supplied, it made it fairly easy to turn the reservoir as we got all of the air out of the block and radiator, but it is still sort of a pain to do with just two hands. Outside of those two smaller issues, we really don't have anything else to mention worthy of a "complaint". Oh and don't forget to opt for an extra 90 degree fitting, maybe even two or three to help clean up the tubing as it is routed.

For those of you that fell in love with the D-Frame Mini and everything it had to offer, but just weren't sure of what to do as far as cooling was concerned, it seems everyone has put their heads together for you. INWIN could have chosen another manufacturer easily enough, but we feel they went in the right direction to slightly modify a pre-existing kit. If the loop manufacturer had to put this all together on-the-fly, the cost would likely be even more. For those that can afford to take this jump, go at it with both feet, as the cooperative endeavor between EKWB and INWIN has left us wishing we had more money and the need for another system, as we would love to go at our own attempt of something very similar, just to see how much power we could pack inside of the D-Frame Mini. And with cooling options like this, you would be hard pressed to take this setup beyond its capabilities of cooling just about any processor you could throw on a Mini-ITX motherboard.

Good going to INWIN and EKWB. Despite the sticker shock associated here, they do offer something that anyone with thoughts of this chassis would love to opt for in this level of cooling, and the ease associated with an EKWB custom kit installation.

- You can buy the EK EK-KIT D240 (In Win D-Frame Mini drop-in) Water Cooling Kit and In Win D-Frame mini in black, orange or red at Scorptec Computers.

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